


Everything's Jumbled UP

by Faerie_Fable



Category: Trolls (2016), Trolls World Tour (2020)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Heavy Angst, Jumbled AU, Mind Manipulation, Multi, Other, Rating May Change, So much angst, Suicide Attempt, Tags May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:01:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25862488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerie_Fable/pseuds/Faerie_Fable
Summary: Based on @Brickoppy #JumbledAU on TumblrPlease read the trigger warnings! This is heavy on the Angst.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	Everything's Jumbled UP

The tunnels to get out of Bergen town had kept collapsing but finally, finally they'd managed to dig down deep enough that the soil was hard and didn't crumble. Except when it did.

Poppy watched, horror flooding her mind, heart breaking in her chest while she caught the little blue trolling her father threw, one last cry of "no troll left behind" echoing through her very core while she watched the rock fall. His hand, surrounded by a slowly growing puddle of blood was all that remained. She screamed, closing her eyes, clutching the small, crying trolling to her chest before she turned and fled, urging the last of the pop trolls on, yelling and screaming for them to run. The efforts redoubled, trolls who had been exhausted.and barely holding on gaining a second wind as if Peppy's strength had been passed on to them. Children stifled their cries with fists over their mouths while the sounds of shovels grew further and further away. They raced through tunnels, Poppy steadily moving to the front of the pack and leading the trolls as far from the once ancestral home of the pop trolls as she could. 

The map and string in her hair all that gave her hope of giving her people a better future. 

The running felt like it lasted days, fatigue slowly wearing the pop trolls down until all they could do was amble listlessly through the dark tunnels, so tired they couldn't even hum to fill the silence. All they could hear was ragged breathing of the trolls next to them and the pitiful whimpers of the children that still remained. The torches had burnt out ages ago, leaving them in stifling darkness, as cold and empty as what Poppy felt her heart had become. 

Her head was strangely empty, not even a single scrapbook design lighting up the broken pieces of her thoughts, not a single image in there except the hand, her father's hand, still reaching as if to pull her under with him, to drown her in his blood. 

She was only pulled from her reverie when someone, a voice she barely recognised as Branch's, called out that he could see light, that they were almost out of the tunnel. She said nothing, unable to get words out around the lump in her throat but pushed herself to walk faster, to get out of the darkness, to try and count how many trolls had escaped, already a tally of dead trolls listing through her mind, her father's face at the top. She clung tighter to the trolling in her arms, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight with their hair while she lead the way out of the tunnel.

Her eyes felt like they were burning when she stepped out into the sunlight, blinking repeatedly, the sting and burn causing tears to stream down her cheeks, and then the view… hair, that view, the tears turned joyful, a half sobbed laugh breaking past her lips before the trolling twisted in her hold, exhaustedly asking if they were there yet. "We're here" she choked out, repeating it a few more times, louder and louder until she was practically yelling it, and soon the whole caravan of trolls were repeating, echoing through the tunnel until all the trolls were rushing forwards on whatever energy they had left.

"We'll camp here, get everyone cleaned up and accounted for, and tomorrow scouts will go out and search for somewhere more permanent" Poppy announced, looking to ever-steady Branch, who was looking around curiously, eyes roving over every nook and cranny of the small clearing. When he felt her gaze on him he turned, nodding, his ears flicking around to listen to everything going on around them and she sighed with relief, setting the trolling down among a small gaggle of Treens and Trollings alike. "Come on Branch, let's go plan!" She announced, standing up straight, trying to squash the memories that had been haunting her down into the deepest pits of her being. 

It wasn't until everyone was clean that they noticed, half the remaining trolls were grey or dulled down versions of themselves and Poppy near panicked at the sight. So few had escaped alive, and now this to top it off? Even she had dulled, the once vibrant pinks of her hair now black at the roots, fading to a greyish pink at the tips that refused to stand tall. When night fell and everyone sat,shuffled close and struggling to stay warm around little fires, they looked to her for hope, to show them how to celebrate and that's when it all came crashing down on her young shoulders, the weight of it all driving every song she once loved out of her in fear and something dark took hold instead, something cold and gripping her heart. 

She ran, hiding near the creek they'd all washed in, string in her grasp, the only source of light and a single word she'd only ever heard used to describe Branch screaming on repeat in her mind; "depressed"! It should have been her, crushed under that stone, not her Dad, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HER the Bergens took a week before trollstice, NOT CREEK. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HER! she wasn't ready to be a queen! She wasn't good enough! She wasn't brave and full of wisdom like her Dad! She gasped, sobbing, what little colour she had left ebbing away, the greys and black spreading and consuming her until the only pink that remained was the glow of the pop music string as it wound around her throat, tightening with every tug until she couldn't sob or gasp for breath.

That's when it happened, her thumb plucked the string, a single note of pop hovering in the air around her, and it sounded so pretty, so much like home, and love, and her people, so much like comfort she did it again, and again, and again, until the string was loose around her throat, and she saw the soft, pastel pink of her skin. She kept going, releasing her throat, string wrapped around one wrist and held tight with her other hand, thumb plucking over and over until the soft, warm pink and the urge to giggle had spread, covering her entirely. "I can fix us" she whispered, almost singing the words under her breath, a soft, easy smile lifting the corners of her lips up while she stood to return back to her subjects. 

She walked like she was on air, regally gliding back into the clearing and slowly her subjects stopped fighting, looking to her and the pop string she was still playing, one of her arms now a harp or a lyre. "I can make us happy" she trilled, an ethereal quality to her voice, soft and calm in the dead of night and soon trolls were lining up, not wanting to be grey. They wanted their music back, their will to live, they wanted to be happy and calm like she was. Her once pink eyes, now a soft, pale blue like the morning sky were warm and inviting despite how utterly empty and devoid of joy or love they were and soon she began to cure them. 

All but Branch, who watched them become calm and sweet, not the excitable, rambunctious lot they used to be, almost mindless in comparison, and when Poppy asked why, he answered simply, "my happiness can come once we have everyone safe, your highness, after I've done everything I can to fix everything, then I can rest".

"My ever-steady Branch" she murmured, reaching out to cup his cheek lovingly, pressing her nose to his for a brief moment, pulling away to look into his grey, once blue, eyes with a smile. "I can't do this without you" she crooned before drifting away, still walking on air, string hidden in her hair once more.


End file.
